This invention relates to product displays and in particular to product hanging strips.
Product manufacturers and suppliers want their products displayed in prominent locations in an eye-catching manner likely to attract consumers. Retail outlets typically wish to maximize the quantity of products displayed for sale, and thus, premium shelf and floor space is limited. One way to increase the available space for display of certain products in high traffic areas, such as aisle end caps and check out lanes, is to attach the products to display strips. Such strips typically mount to the front of a shelf and sometimes project out into the aisle to make them more visible.
One example of a product display strip can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,690. This display strip includes a vertical support that mounts to the front of shelving and holds a wire bracket suspending a metal strip. The strip has a number of vertically spaced tabs or tongues cut out at all but one side on which the products are hung. Each tongue is bent at an angle away from the strip so that products can hang on the strip by simply slipping the tongue in a slot formed in the product package. The display strip disclosed in this patent is typical of many conventional displays, requiring separate mounting hardware and having connecting tabs or tongues that are oriented vertically in the direction of elongation of the strip. The tongues are in this orientation so that the attached products cannot readily fall from the strip. However, this is only true when the strip is in its proper vertical orientation. When it is tipped forward or sideways the products can fall off of the strip. Moreover, when the tongues are oriented this way, the products must be lifted up and slid off of the tongues, which is likely to dislodge one or more products suspended above the selected product, since it is customary to overlap adjacent products mounted on such strips.
Thus, a product display strip is desired with an improved connection for attaching the products being displayed.